After the director of "Nightcrawler" took a jab at superhero films last week at the Spirit Awards, I got to thinking (since I'm a superhero writer who is also an independent filmmaker, though the Indestructibles clearly take up most of my time these days out of necessity) and I got a little mad about it. Then I saw James Gunn's wonderful response to it.

So I asked to write something up about superheroes, independent films, and whether we have a "tsunami" of superhero movies right now or not, which they've published right here earlier today. Turns out there's more crime thrillers, romantic comedies, and horror films than superheroes every year. So what's the problem?

I'm going to be silly and quote myself:

But in the end, aren't stories just stories? And while serious cinema should always exist... wasn't this an industry founded on popcorn and escapism? Perhaps instead of disdain or fear of the rise of the superhero film, we could appreciate what the genre is doing: it's keeping butts in the seats in an age when our consumption of stories, particularly film, is becoming a more and more solitary, lonely experience. If superheroes bring us together, because of our shared love for these characters and their stories, I see no shame in that.